3. 'Captain Miller' in Saving Private Ryan
This isn't the first time a Steven Spielberg movie has made this list, and it won't be the last. But it is the only appearance of Tom Hanks, and I can't help but think there's probably a dozen more Hanks characters that would make the grade. He just seems to play those sort of people. Even so, I don't think any of them would top the stupidity of Captain Miller, played by Hanks in one of his best performances. And although great acting can make that moment of idiocy in a film even more impactful, it's sadly the fault of the script that has Miller become such a monumental ass-hat. Needless to say, the mission Miller embarks upon is a curiously idiotic one. Because although it's hard to argue against the humanity of the task - to find Ryan and bring him home, now that all his siblings have died serving their country - it's rather a stretch to send a squad of tired infantrymen behind enemy lines on what turns out to be something of a suicide mission. But we can forgive Miller for that, given that the brass above him make the rules, and he is following orders after all. Along the way, the squad (who are themselves a bit curious about why they have to go and find Ryan, and Miller is rather oblique with his answers) chance upon a fortified German machine-gun post. Miller decides to deviate from an already dangerous assignment and create his own secondary objective, telling his frankly horrified men that they will assault the position with a desperate rush tactic that involves throwing some grenades and running fast. Someone asks if they can't just go around instead, to which Miller replies no - on the grounds that other unsuspecting GIs might get hurt. What, like it doesn't matter if your own men get hurt instead? The upshot is, people follow orders and there is tragic loss of life. Which was pretty idiotic. But that isn't the worst of it. When they discover a sole German survivor at the gun position, Miller decides to let him go - an act so outrageously stupid (as Miller will find out later) that his own men end up pulling guns on each other as they argue about it. In an act of irony so maddening to watch it's painful, the would-be captive returns later, with a rifle, about a dozen Kraut squads and some heavy armoured vehicles for backup, headed right for where Ryan is holed up. Topping all that? No prizes for guessing which German gets to mortally wound Miller.